Option 2

While it is exciting for Louise St. Martin to open the season in Japan, she questions how much value it actually has growing the game. Not to mention that the novelty isn't quite there with her having played in the IIHF World Championship there a few seasons ago.

My personal opinion on these overseas games is that yeah, they will expose fans to the game, and it's a nice change from being in USA/Canada all the time for the players, but unless you're setting up stuff at the grassroots level it really won't leave any lasting impact in terms of growing the game. It just becomes this neat novelty thing that people check out because it's there and it's the best in the world, but they won't connect with it and more often than not it just goes by without actually increasing participation or improving development. Big money orgs playing in nontraditional markets and doing nothing else isn't what grows the game, it's getting people to participate in the sport at low levels. So, Louise would probably try to set up a youth Learn to Play clinic or something ahead of the game, so long as she gets over her jet lag quickly enough.